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It's A Pretty Decent Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 54 / 55
Date: September 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I want to start this review with a disclaimer: I don't know a lot about game programming, so if you want a technical analysis of the game, this isn't the review for you. I do know that I like it though.

I would say that this game is on a par with Sierra's other city building games-Caesar III, Pharoah, Cleopatra, Zeus, and Poseidon-but with one new feature: you can play it online with your friends. If not for that feature, I probably would've only given this game 4 stars. The graphics are pretty cool but I've been having a hard time with the toolbar. The icons all look the same to me. The warehouse icon looks like a trading post icon that looks like a mill icon, etc. I suppose I'll get used to it. I remember not liking that about Zeus at first either, but that one eventually became my favorite.

The other interesting thing about this game (I say interesting because I'm not sure I like it yet) is that feng shui is very important to your people. In the other games, if you could place a building in a certain spot you got a green footprint, if you couldn't, you got a red footprint. In this game you get red, green, and YELLOW footprints. If you get a yellow footprint over the spot you want to place a building on, you can still put it there if you want, but it decreases your feng shui rating. And the less harmonious your feng shui, the less your people like you. So you really have to think a lot when you're building your city.

I'm not sure that this game is Sierra's best city building game yet, but it's still fun to play and I would recommend buying it. I would also recommend getting Acropolis, which is Zeus and it's expansion pack Poseidon in the same package.

A worthy successor

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 32
Date: May 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Contrary to what some other reviewers have claimed, Emperor is not the same game as Caesar 3, Pharaoh, and Zeus. Having played all of these games extensively, there are differences both subtle and overt between all four of these games, and none of them is an exact clone of any of the others.

Yes, the foundation for all four games is the same, and knowing how to play one of these games will get you 75% of the way along to learning how to play any of the others. But there's still that 25% that makes each game its own beastie.

Caesar 3 was the first of these games (Caesar and Caesar 2 are sufficiently different that knowing how to play them confers no insight whatsoever in how to play any of the rest of the games), and Pharaoh was a refinement and evolution of C3's gameplay. It wasn't a revolutionary change, but several extra layers of complexity were added, making it much more challenging than C3.

Zeus came along and did a dramatic revamp of the basic game engine. Several elements which were standard in C3 and Pharaoh were either gone or drastically changed in Zeus. In addition, Zeus added features that hadn't been seen in either of the previous games, such as the episode format, adventuring heroes, and the ability to conquer distant cities.

Emperor is seen as a refinement and evolution of what we saw in Zeus, in much the same way that Pharaoh is seen as a refinement and an evolution of what we saw in C3. It is a more complex game than Zeus, in much the same way that Pharoah was a more complex game than C3.

For example, Emperor has a completely new and different way to provide food to your citizens. And it's pretty challenging, too. Gone are the granaries. In their place are mills, which have the same capacity for food (32 units) but which churn out higher (or lower) quality food depending on how many (or how few) different types of food are in its storehouses. The highest level of housing requires the highest quality food -- which requires you to balance 5 different food types in one 32-slot Mill.

Farming is handled in a different way as well, with variable field sizes now allowed, and with the ability to mix crops.

For added complexity, your buildings (and your city) have Feng Shui ratings. If the Feng Shui goes too low, Bad Things(tm) happen. Many die-hard City Building fans have taken this as a challenge, and work to produce only cities which have Feng Shui in "Perfect Harmony." (Me, I just settle for "Auspicious," which is pretty easy to achieve.)

Residential walls have been added, which are different from city walls in that they don't offer protection from enemies, but they do block out low desirability. And the gates for these walls can be configured to allow some walkers to go through them while other walkers treat it as a roadblock. Thus giving you more fine-tuned control over your residential and industrial areas.

All in all, this game is a worthy successor to the City Building series, and any fan of the original series will get much enjoyment out of this game.

Good Game, May Get Better With Updates

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 28 / 29
Date: September 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I downloaded the demo of this game, and thoroughly enjoyed playing it, so I went out and bought the full version. Having played all the games in Sierra's city-building series, this one takes its style after Zeus/Posiedon and raises the bar a bit. The interface is easy and intuitive, so users familiar with the other games will recognize it immediately and total newcomers will quickly adapt.

My only complaint is that I found there was a conflict between this game and Pharaoh/Cleopatra from the Great Empires II collection. Emperor uninstalled Pharaoh/Cleo before it would install, and vice versa when I tried to reinstall Pharoah/Cleo. I checked Sierra's forum, and apparently they are working on this issue now and hopefully it will be fixed with an update.

The campaign editor works like the one in Zeus/Posiedon, but seems a bit buggy on my screen. (Maximizing it helped, but it still ran pretty slow.)

The online campaigns are what sets this game apart, and I was able to play online without any problems. I'd say this game is worth buying, just keep your eye out for updates from Sierra.

Intoxicating and Rich - Like a Chinese Sunset

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: March 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Like Pharoah? Caesar 3? I have played most of the historical sims, and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom competes well. The graphics are even better than Pharoah, as are the food types and interplay between your citizens and yourself. If you enjoy Impressions' other City Building Series games, you will be able to drink deeply of this exotic elixir. I find it fascinating to sit back and watch the mulberry tree farmers raise silk worms, harvest them, and then send them to a weaver to be turned into beautiful, exotic fabrics for trade. (A great way to put $ in your treasury!)

Remember: These City Building Series games are not high on military play; the real action comes in developing an efficient, thriving city via excellent planning and strategic trade pacts. The military forces you create in E:ROTMK are primarily used for defensive purposes, so if you are a war gamer, instead you might want to spend your $ on Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition (historical Japan).

One problem: Unlike Pharoah, I have been unable to find a way to control allocation of labor via a central screen. In Pharoah and C3 you can prioritize your labor, but not so in E:ROTMK. Other than this slight oversight on the part of the Impressions team, this is a fun and engaging addition to the excellent City Building Series.

Don't bother

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 24 / 37
Date: February 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing the Sierra City-Builder series since the first Caesar. Change the graphics in Emperor and you have any of the following: Caesar III, Pharaoh, Zeus. The same problems that plague the user in the earlier 3 games are made even worse here ("dumb" walkers that force the user to make unrealistic and repititous road patterns, supplies going exactly where they are needed least [how does Sierra do that?], farms not functioning because cart walkers bypass empty warehouses to use the one furthest away, etc, etc.) The gods in the game are annoying. You have to remember to give gifts every few months, which can be a problem if you're trying to accomplish something and you concentrate on that instead of remembering the gods. And the game doesn't tell you which god you last pleased, so you had better have a good memory. It's not that there's any real point to the gods in terms of playing the game--they're just a distration. And as for the Feng Shui, well, let's just say that if you ever ran out of useable land in the earlier games, you're in for a real treat here. The manual is pretty to look at, but useless for gameplay. If you don't already know what you're doing, don't count on the manual to explain it; and if you do know what you're doing, you've already played this game, so don't waste your money. In spite of the manufacturer's claims to the contrary, this game is not much more than the other city series games with new graphics. After playing a few maps, it is little more than building the same housing grids over and over and over again while trying to look for places to put the buildings you need to reach the map's goals. Instead of fixing the problems with the older games, Sierra has just invented new ones. Bottom line: if you have Caeasar, Zeus, or Pharaoh, you already have Emperor.

nothing beats it for intricacy, interest, intrigue...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: July 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First, you can't buy this game from the manufacturer anymore but you CAN buy it "used or new" from Amazon online, so it is still a game in play. There are plenty of hint and help sites live and online, as well as online hosted multiplayer games ('though I only play it standalone).

Second, it is the MOST advanced of the fixed-view city building games that started with SimCity, advanced through Caesar, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and Zeus/Poseidon.

Third, I love the game so much I've worked through all the campaigns at "easy" and have started back through them all at "very hard". I have read books on Chinese history and art because of the interest aroused in me by the different campaign chapter visuals and narratives.

Nothing since has yet come close to Emperor for economic intricacy, interest, and intrigue. NOTE: The first attempt in the MULTI-view city building genre (i.e., zoom out, zoom in, rotate, spin) is Children of the Nile (see separate review) IS outstanding for adding stunning visuals and different challenges, but does not yet offer quite the ARRAY of intricacies in Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom. But I'm waiting!

That's the summary. Some of the things I like about Emperor follow.

1. Highest control of "walkers". In the earlier games like Caesar you could go bonkers distributing food etc. to your residents because of the random nature of the characters distributing the food. In Emperor, you have roadblocks AND gates. You can get quite elegant in your layouts and be satisfied in having them WORK.

2. Intensely interesting historical background. Each campaign is a different Chinese era. In the beginning your food types, metal types, etc. are limited. Then your society technology and culture become increasingly sophisticated with the replacement of copper by iron, wood by paper, bronzeware by lacquerware, etc. Chinese history was complex with the evolution of four major types of spiritual / religious regard, and this is also reflected in the game.

3. In the "Qin" campaign it is SO COOL that you get to build the Terracotta Army monument and tomb of the first Qin emperor. There are monuments and great works in all the scenarios, including the Great Wall and Grand Canal.

4. Intricacies include handling multiple food types to satisfy your common and your elite residents. Also, the placement of different buildings should correspond with good "feng shui" (wood, water, fire, earth, metal) for optimum city benefits. This at first drives you batty but then you begin to catch on. NOTE: Even today the Chinese still use feng shui in planning and design, and it's become popular in the west... not that Emperor is a course on it - it's just interesting how the designers wove it in!

5. Intricacies also include dealing with other cities as allies, enemies, trade partners. You can FIGHT them with your army, you can SABOTAGE them with your spies... but there will be armies and spies in YOUR city too, with different ways to detect / thwart them... Sometimes you keep on trading with another city all while you sabotage/fight each other. Hey, it's business... Machiavelli would have understood! NOTE: At the "easy" level it's quite... easy... to avoid having to play military stuff, if that's not your thing. At the "very hard" level having an army alone isn't enough... spies and walls and the help of the Ancestors are a must!

Interesting genre but derivative and repetitive game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As other reviewers point out, there is plenty that is right about Middle Kingdom. I won't bother repeating what they have said. Instead, I will state why I am not impressed and not addicted. There are two main reasons for this.
Firstly, this game is a rehash of older games with new graphics. This game feels almost exactly like the last member of the series that I played - Caesar III. Since Caesar III, the games Zeus, Poseidon, Pharoah and Cleopatra were all released, yet even after all that, this is almost entirely the same game I purchased in 1998.
Secondly,the game quickly becomes repetitive. I was bored with the same old same old before I even cleared the Shang Dynasty (the first historical one and the first one that is not simply represented as a tutorial in the game). Cities need more or less the same things and so you do more or less the smae things each time. There may be twists - one city might need to import hemp, another might be able to smelt bronze and turn it into bronzeware for export, but that still doesn't add a lot of variety. There is, thankfully, a campaign mode with set missions. This helps. A bit. But since one must mostly just rehash familiar steps to complete the missions, and since what you do in one missions doesn't have much influence on what you do in later missions, this too gets repetitive. Also, you can build armies and send them away to conquer other cities in China, which, again, is a step in an interesting direction. But you don't get to see the battles and you don't get control of enemy cities or resources - the best you can do is to extract some tribute.
The game badly needs to give the gamer some purpose other than just knocking over missions. A very simple optional wargame element would help tremendously. Building an army would be a lot more meaningful if you could take it into the field, position it according to the terrain, and guide it to victory. Fancy graphics and a keen AI are not needed - just something to give you the feeling that you are crushing your enemies instead of just being informed that they got crushed. Another thing that would help tremendously is the ability to control more than one city at once. This would allow for the addition of a strategic element of battling for land and resources as you rise from a lowly village chief to be emperor of all China - you could still build city after city as in the present campaign, but each city would mean something in the long run. Again, the strategic engine would not have to be complicated to add a lot of flavour and interest to the game - the meat of the programming could still lie almost entirely in city-building. Think of how the Total War series benefits from its strategic element, despite the fact that all the serious work went into the battle system.
In short, Emperor has a fascinating engine that could be built on and used as the basis for a great game. But it hasn't been.

The best by far

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: April 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Absolutely stunning! I've played all of the others in the range and this one beats them all.

The graphics are brilliant - extremely detailed and realistic without any blocky appearance.

The idea is not just plain-old conquer-rule style. The game includes all aspects of building and ruling a city - trade, politics, tax regulation, providing different foods and materials, luxuries such as ceramics, carved jade, bronzeware,hemp,etc. And obviously to add to this military. There are many different attack/ defense modes to enable in your troops and different ways to attack other cities and the tribute that you would want from that city (money, food, etc)

Relating to review one where so called "dumb walkers" are mentioned. If you were good enough at planning a city and where rodes should go then you wouldn't have a problem. In my opinion it makes for a realistic small challenge. And as for the Gods; you can always check their status which is written above their name to see if you need to pay homage or not. And they DO have a purpose - apart from other things they can bless different work areas in your industry, agriculture, etc to improve production, which at times could be vital.

there are differrent play modes - single player campaigns in which you are taken through chinese history, achieving objectives along the way. Multiplayer mode in which you can take you city online and interact with real live players. Open-play mode in which you choose an era in chinese history and build a city to your delight without any limits.

To conclude: don't even thing twice - just get! rest assured you won't be sorry.

Great fun while you learn about China

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In the tradition of Caesar, Pharoh and other city-building strategy games, we finally have one set in one of the largest kingdoms the world has seen - China!

Fans of the previous city-building sims will feel right at home here. You start out by building a road, and putting little house lots alongside it. Soon you're placing wells, firehouses, and more advanced structures.

You're learning about Chinese history and culture as you play, wokring with shrines, help shops, mills, and more. You build up your trade and commerce, and fortify your city against attacks. The graphics are great, and you really get involved in the success of your town.

There are even Feng Shui aspects to the game - placing your buildings in auspicious areas of the town help your prosperity!

A fun new addition to the city-strategy series, and a non-violent way to spend countless hours. Recommended!

As a side note, I read the other reviews that said people were having issues. I'm running XP and haven't had any problems at all with the software.

Great follow-up for Pharaoh and Zeus

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: October 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is a great follow up if you have been playing the city-builders series of Sierra/Impressions Games. I have been playing Pharaoh for sleepless months and when I acquired Emperor, I sure will miss sleeping... again.

Graphics have improved since Zeus and gameplay is a lot challenging. I recommend you buy this game along with Great Empires Collection 2. All games are excellent.

Can't wait to see the expansion.

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